Stabilizers are normally added to hydrogen peroxide solutions to combat decomposition due to trace impurities, mainly dissolved metals. These compounds are usually sequestering agents and can take many forms. Many types of compounds have been used to fill this function, such as diols, quinones, stannate salts, pyrophosphates, various aromatic compounds and amino carboxylic acids salts. However, many of the previously suggested compounds have various issues and challenges associated with them, such as toxicity, environmental impact and poor performance.
Examples of specific compounds that have been suggested for use in solutions to protect against hydrogen peroxide decomposition include sodium phenolsulfate; sodium stannate; N,N-lower alkyl aniline, sulfamic acid, sulfolane, and dinormal lower alkyl sulfones and sulfoxides; phosphonic acids and their salts; acrylic acid polymers; polyphosphates; polyamino polyphosphonic acids and/or their salts; and specific combinations (or blends) of such compounds. However, in addition to toxicity and environmental impact concerns, many of these suggested compounds or blends have other drawbacks. For example, use of the specific stabilizer(s) either require specific conditions to provide adequate hydrogen peroxide stability, such as specific pH levels, e.g., acidic conditions, or relatively low hydrogen peroxide concentrations, or have poor stability performance. The poor stability performance can either be poor stability performance generally or poor stability performance in specific formulations that contain other destabilizing components, e.g., surfactants.
In addition, hydrogen peroxide has been used widely as an ingredient in various cleaning solutions. Many such cleaning solutions require an alkali pH and various other ingredients, which have a destabilizing effect on the hydrogen peroxide, to achieve the desired cleaning performance. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide such a cleaning solution where the hydrogen peroxide decomposition is minimized.
Despite considerable efforts which have been applied with available stabilizer compounds to solve the problem, there still exists a need to provide hydrogen peroxide solutions which are highly stable without the above mentioned drawbacks.